When to Use Screen Plane, Layer Plane, or Working Plane

One of my clients was watching the screen plane movie from Steve Scaysbrook and had a question.

“The movie suggests working only in layer plane mode. Is there ever a situation where it is advantageous to work in screen plane mode?”

It is a good question about when to use layer plane or screen plane.

I believe that you need to know what the different planes are for. You need to know when one plane is better for you than another. I do not believe that you can work effectively in Vectorworks and use a rule like “Always use Screen plane.”
Screen Plane
Screen plane is useful for replicating a 2D only working method.
[ms-protect-content id=”34491,34492,34493, 34494, 34495, 34496, 344927″]It is very useful when placing dimensions on a 3D model. If you don’t, you often find that when you are dimensioning a building you get odd dimensions. This is because the dimension line is snapping to a different plane of the building.
When I’m drawing details I do not change my view, so it doesn’t really matter, but it would be another place that you could use Screen Plane only.
When I am creating symbols that need to be 2D, I will use screen plane. For example, when I’m creating custom profiles for the Framing Member tool, Repetitive Unit tool, etc., I will switch to screen plane to ensure that the symbols are on the correct plane. I know that you can force this later on the Create Symbol dialog box, but drawing the objects on the correct plane enures that you get what you want.
Layer Plane
Layer plane is like drawing on the ground plane. It often looks like a 2D drawing mode, but is it not. Drawing in Layer Plane works well when you are in a plan view or an isometric view, but it is really odd when you are in an elevation view (left, right, front, or back). When you are in an elevation view, it is very difficult to see what you are drawing.
Working Plane
Working planes are all the 3D planes and it includes the automatic working plane.
Automatic working planes are really useful for 3D modeling, so if I am working on a 3D model I will switch to Automatic. This speeds up your modeling.
Finally
One thing to think about is that if you draw one object on the screen plane and another object on layer plane, even though they look like they line up, you will not be able to use some commands (Add Surface, Clip Surface, etc.) because the objects are on different planes.
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